robert letts

a bike for the rector I have a trek cytronex -still very good - and I was showing it to our Rector, who is interested in a good but inexpensive e bike to get him around his four parishes. He had a motorbike accident (I hope he wont mind me mentioning) a while ago so he has less muscle power in one leg. I noticed this thread and though he can join and have a look. I have sent him the link, plus 50 cycles link (expensive bikes but good I guess) and alien (inexpensive but look ok - I rather like the idea of the rector cycling around on an alien) What does everyone think?

worst hill there are probably lots of worse ones, but for me personally getting from butcombe to blagdon then up to the top (heading towards priddy) all in one go is my particular hill-noir

The button pushing became natural by ride 2 on the trek. I always wondered why my muscle power never seemed to add more than about 2-3 mph to the electric power of the forza. It must be fairly inefficient. What the boffins have spent hours and pages trying to explain in these pages in a scientific way is actually the mysterious (and not new) magic of a good light bike propelling a fairly large weight (I AM 6"2' and 15 stone myself) fairly effortlessly with a combination of low rolling resistance, and good bike dynamics (i.e. easy to transfer my rather poor muscle power to forward motion). Add that to a high power electric battery/motor combo from cytronex and you are off! I think everyone should club together and buy shares in his 'no hills' company if they are ever issued, because it is likely to be a winner.

The design rationale for an electric bike (that mark has cleverly understood) is you need to keep the most rideable aspects of a good light road bike and just add a powerful hill climbing tool, thats all. The electric part of the bike is absolutely minimal. I think this bike blows all the others out of the water. Hopefully it will also cure the following two comments; 'thats cheating isnt it?' and/or 'does it charge up going downhill' , because most observers cannot tell its electric anyway....

second ride, went up the worst hill ever in the mendips, works brilliantly

Less than a year old, unmarked, lithium battery, 150 miles covered, near Bristol airport. offers please of about £750 NOW SOLD

Hi Flecc 50 cycles has just had another go at fixing my bike problems this time with with total success. This involved me emailing and chatting to ken ching from ezee torq in china about the problems I was having (he thought the battery could be faulty). It turns out also that the motor was not working correctly in freewheel thus increasing the judder (it is also now much easier to pedal with no power on for some reason). The brake pads are much wider (and better), the replaced forks are an earlier less whippy design apparently. The wheel, tyre and spokes are also new (50 cycles was concerned about the lacing at one point), the battery is new (thanks to Ken Ching). RESULT: a far better and instant 20 mile range on my first run (hilly in places), the battery functioning as one would expect with the red light coming on only very late into the ride. No judder on braking at all, ever in any conditions. RESULT: I am now a happy customer, well done 50 cycles, but it has taken six months to get to the point when I can go out and really try the bike properly. It must have been a friday afternoon bike if they have such a thing in china!

My contribution to the torq owners discussion about brake judder and gearing are as follows: I think the brake judder is worse in the wet. I have noticed it doesn't happen on the new giant bike, which is of a broadly similar design. 50 cycles have changed the brake levers on mine but I don't believe any amount of fiddling with the brakes will sort it fully. I think that the problem lies with forks that are essentially too springy when married to the extra weight of the motor at the front. I think its potentially dangerous in terms of handling, particularly in the wet and thus should be somehow modified on all torqs sold so far, sorry guys... My other belief is that 50% of the gears are pretty unusable except for anyone who lives in Holland. The front chainwheel is huge. I bet the designer in China lives somewhere with no hills. Thus I would say that the gearing is definitely wrong for the UK. I expect that newer torqs will resolve both these issues, but I hope that existing owners will get either a recall or a fix, especially for the brake problem. Ortherwise its a good bike.

could I fit a smaller chainwheel at the pedal end or a pair like a normal mountain bike?

50 cycles has had a go at sorting out the problems I have had with the bike whilst under warranty which is good. The brakes shudder a little bit less and they have put a larger chainwheel on the final easiest gear which helps a little with hills. The red light comes on just as quickly after a couple of pedal assist miles (they left the battery with me so did not test that). I was originally sold the bike on the basis that it would be good for hills but the reality is as you say and that the motor power is fairly feeble on our somerset hills. I guess I should move to east anglia. Maybe I should sell it and recover some of the loss. I tried a giant lafree which is better at hills undoubtedly, but the gears were a bit troublesome to engage correctly (perhaps an adjustment thing) but overall it felt like a town bike to ride compared with the basic mountain bike set up of the ezee. I have a small tip for those with short mudguards; you can fit a crudbuster front wheel mud guard with the rubber bands supplied to the far back of the ezee torq bike carrier and it stops mud flying up your backside.

thank you very much for the advice - So its not really worth swapping the chainwheel. I cant see the sprint for sale. I will contact 50 cycles again, who dont seem particularly quick to respond; I rang them last week and filled in their fault email box but I have had no response so far.

ezee torq problems Hi, the red light comes on at around 2 miles into the ride. I would like to let the bike run out of power to test the range in restricted pedel assist mode but I am sure I could not ride it back home without walking it up the hills (even though I am a fit cyclist), whilst it is currently set up with gear ratios that basically can't tackle hills even with pedal assist. As this was the point of buying the bike I am slightly fed up with it. I have three main problems with the bike; 1 excessive shudder from front wheel on braking, 2 the red light problem, 3 its impossible to get up hills (compared to my normal bike, a completely standard moutain bike). I hope I can get 50 cycles to take the bike back to their workshop for a thorough inspection as I have only done 70 miles since I bought the bike in July.

lithium battery life I get two miles on an eeze torq on lithium when the red light comes on. I have had the bike since the summer and have ridden 69 miles - surely there must be a fault? I find 50 cycles pretty hands off when it comes to warranty help - does anyone else have problems?